Bioethics has paid surprisingly little attention to the special problems faced by women and to feminist analyses of current health care issues other than reproduction. Feminism & Bioethics: Beyond Reproduction aims to counterbalance this one-sided approach. A breakthrough volume of original essays authored by leading figures in bioethics and feminist theory, it moves beyond reproduction and nursing, taking bioethics into new territory. The book starts with an investigation of the relationship between feminism and bioethics and introduces different approaches to the problem. Chapters stress the importance of liberal feminism which prefers feminist over feminine analysis, integrate the experience of women of color, draw from the women's self-help movement, and apply feminist standpoint theory. In the second part of the book, contributors view various bioethical problems from a feminist perspective: euthanasia, AIDS, the definition of health, doctor-patient communication, the Human Genome Project, the conduct of biomedical research, and health care reform. They examine the pros and cons of the application of gender and feminism to bioethics. This provocative volume is bound to change and broaden the way bioethicists, students, patients, and the public consider bioethical issues.

The essays next look at abortion from a variety of angles. One contends that killing fetuses is not murder; others emphasize the moral importance of access to abortion. Purdy considers the conflicting interests of women and men regarding abortion, and argues against requiring a husband's consent. The book concludes with a consideration of new reproductive technologies and arrangements, including the controversial issue of surrogacy, or contract pregnancy. Throughout, Purdy combines traditional utilitarianism with some of the most powerful insights of contemporary feminist ethics. Her provocative essays create guidelines for approaching new topics and inspire fresh thinking about old ones.

Bioethics tackles the most vexing problems in health care and the biological sciences: from reproductive technologies to euthanasia, the AIDS epidemic, mapping the human genome, human subjects research, and health care reform. Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to the special problems faced by women and to feminist analyses of current health care issues other than reproduction. This breakthrough volume of original essays authored by leading figures in bioethics and feminist theory moves beyond the areas of reproduction and nursing, taking bioethics into new territory. The book starts with an investigation of the relationship between feminism and bioethics and introduces different approaches to the problem. These chapters stress the importance of liberal feminism that prefers feminist over feminine analysis, integrates the experience of women of color, draws from the women's self-help movement, and uses the feminist stand-point theory.; In the second part of the book, the authors apply the feminist perspective to different bioethics problems: euthanasia, AIDS, the definition of health, doctor-patient communication, the Human Genome Project, the conduct of biomedical research, and health care reform. They demonstrate the gain and benefit that results when bioethics pays attention to gender and feminism. This volume will change the way bioethicists, students, patients, and the public think about these profoundly challenging problems.

Direct outcome of a meeting sponsored by the International Association of Bioethics in 1992--Preface.

This breakthrough volume was one of the first to map the possibilities of feminist analysis in bioethics. After an extended introduction by Susan M. Wolf on "Gender and Feminism in Bioethics," the book offers twelve chapters. These include chapters by Dorothy E. Roberts on "Reconstructing the Patient: Starting with Women of Color"; Rebecca S. Dresser on "What Bioethics Can Learn from the Women's Health Movement"; Vanessa Merton on "Ethical Obstacles to the Participation of Women in Biomedical Research"; Ruth Faden et al. on "Women as Vessels and Vectors: Lessons from the HIV Epidemic"; and Susan M. Wolf on "Gender, Feminism, and Death: Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia." A multidisciplinary group of authors including scholars of law, philosophy, disability theory, public health, and genetics consider perspectives including communicative ethics, standpoint theory, and pragmatism. Among the reviews are the following: "Drawing on work from top feminist bioethicists, philosophers, and law professors, Susan Wolf's anthology Feminism and Bioethics reinforces the vibrancy of feminist theoretical contributions to bioethical thinking. The twelve articles, accompanied by Wolf's extensive introduction, suggest how feminism's insights and critiques refine our thinking on a wide range of bioethical issues.... Wolf's book confirms that feminist approaches are no longer marginal or to be dismissed by 'mainstream' bioethics: one fails to engage these contributions at his/her own peril as a legitimate scholar, teacher, or practitioner in this field." - Leslie Bender, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 25, No. 58, 1997 "Feminism and Bioethics: Beyond Reproduction distinguishes itself not only among works in bioethics, but among works at the intersection of bioethical issues and feminist methods.... Taking readers beyond reproduction, not to the brink of revolution, but toward reconstruction in bioethics, Wolf's volume proceeds by illuminating how the field, its categories, and its arguments were constructed in the first place, within necessarily gendered institutions and discourses. From its first pages the volume proves that in personal experience and intellectual inquiry, gender matters." - Lisa S. Parker, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Vol. 19, No. 411, 1998.

No other cluster of medical issues affects the genders as differently as those related to procreation—contraception, sterilization, abortion, artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, and genetic screening. Yet the moral diversity among feminists has led to political fragmentation, foiling efforts to create policies that are likely to serve the interests of the largest possible number of women. In this remarkable book, Rosemarie Tong offers an approach to feminist bioethics that serves as a catalyst, bringing together varied perspectives on choice, control, and connection. Emphasizing the complexity of feminist debates, she guides feminists toward consensus in thought, cooperation in action, and a world that would have no room for domination and subordination. Tong fairly and comprehensively presents the traditions of both feminist and nonfeminist ethics and bioethics. Although feminist approaches to bioethics derive many insights from nonfeminist ethics and bioethics, Tong shows that their primary source of inspiration is feminist ethics, leading feminist bioethicists to ask the so-called woman question in order to raise women’s consciousness about the systems, structures, and relationships that oppress them. Feminist bioethicists are, naturally, committed to acting locally in the worlds of medicine and science. But their different feminist voices must also be raised at the policy table in order to make gender equity a present reality rather than a mere future possibility. Inability to define a plan that guarantees liberation for all women must not prevent feminists from offering a plan that promises to improve the welfare of many women. Otherwise, a perspective less appealing to women may fill the gap.

This collection brings together fourteen contributions by authors from around the globe. Each of the contributions engages with questions about how local and global bioethical issues are made to be comparable, in the hope of redressing basic needs and demands for justice. These works demonstrate the significant conceptual contributions that can be made through feminists' attention to debates in a range of interrelated fields, especially as they formulate appropriate responses to developments in medical technology, global economics, population shifts, and poverty. Visit our website for sample chapters!